Earlier this summer, the “Dangers to Democracy” report was released by the University of Chicago. A survey project there has been tracking Americans’ views on politics, in particular Trump, since 2021.
“A recent survey shows increasing support for the use of violence to restore former President Trump to the White House,” states the first sentence in a Hill story, published July 25, about the poll.
That sentence was referring to pollsters learning that 7% of poll respondents agree the “use of force” is justified to return Trump to the presidency. That number represents a jump from an earlier figure of 4.5% figure and hence reflects a jump from 12 million to 18 million Americans, according to the pollsters at NORC and the Chicago Project on Security Threats.
What goes unmentioned and unreported in The Hill’s 450-word story is what those pollsters found among Democrats: 11% of Americans, or the equivalent of 30 million, support violence to keep Trump out of the White House.
“I'm no mathematician, but I'm pretty sure that 30 million is more than 18 million,” concluded Not the Bee, the non-satirical website, which noticed a more honest and fair news report from “Face the Nation,” the CBS News weekend show.
On the CBS News program, host Margaret Brennan pointed out the troubling “30 million” statistic to Robert Pape, a University of Chicago political science professor who oversees the "Dangers to Democracy" polling and the reports on political violence.
“What we’re seeing is not simply a manifestation on the Right,” Pape said, referring to the January 6 riot at the U.S Capitol. “What we need to look at is the sentiments on the Right and the Left that are being radicalized to millions and millions of Americans.”
If they could, millions of right-leaning Americans would probably tell Professor Pape he is arriving quite late to that conclusion after they have been called everything from “white supremacists” to “conspiracy theorists” by the Left for years.
“You could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” then-candidate Hillary Clinton told New Yorkers at a political fundraiser. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it.”
Many of those Trump supporters were also physically assaulted by Democrats during the summer of 2016 for attending then-candidate Donald Trump’s political rallies. The attackers said they were defending democracy from those racist “deplorables" who are now routinely called "MAGA Republicans" by President Joe Biden.
Washington Times columnist Robert Knight tells AFN the poll suggests to him left-wing radicals would have stormed the U.S. Capitol – in the name of saving democracy – to stop the U.S. Senate from recognizing a second Trump term.
“There is very real division in this country,” he warns. “And it's a little scary when people are losing friendships, and neighbors won't speak to each other, depending on which side of the fence they're on.”
Back in the CBS News report, Pape compared political feelings to “dry kindling” that can be set off by a spark then burn like a wildfire. There are many Americans who will never commit violence, he said, but the survey suggests there is a “pool” of Americans who will, and that pool is growing.
